Following the general reduction of fees on the Ethereum network, L2 chains are now offering significantly lower fees than previously, allowing users to make large Ether transactions and pay less than $0.1 for them, according to Gasprice.io.
As the page suggests, ZKSync allows ETH transactions for less than $0.1, while the swap will cost users around $0.16. Other Layer 2 chains are also offering cheaper transactions for Ethereum, with the average cost of sending ETH remaining at approximately $0.5.
Right now is an excellent time to move to layer2 Ethereum.
— Evan Van Ness ? (@evan_van_ness) March 5, 2022
And it will only get better over the next ~12 hours. pic.twitter.com/7D31NzaOGs
As for the main network, Ethereum currently allows sending funds for 12 Gwei, which is one of the lowest prices for a transaction fee since July 12. Such a drop in the cost of Ethereum transactions is most likely tied to the drop in network activity.
Previously, Ethereum users had no other choice but to pay up to $100 to make a simple transaction on the chain. Swaps and NFT mints required even more gas fees of users because of network congestion.
Strong drop in network usage
The main source of increased transaction fees on the Ethereum network were the NFT and DeFi industries, which have lost a lot of volume following the correction on the cryptocurrency market and the general drop in the popularity of the industry.
Alex DovbnyaAccording to data from decentralized tracking services like DappRadar and DeFiLIama, NFT marketplace OpenSea faces almost a 50% drop in trading volume following security issues and numerous phishing attacks.
As for the DeFi industry, most investors have withdrawn their funds from lending and borrowing contracts after a series of hacks and exploits appeared in the first months of 2022.
At press time, it is still possible to make Ethereum transactions with gas fees lower than 20 Gwei or to find cheaper Layer 2 alternatives.
Alex Dovbnya
Vladislav Sopov
Dan Burgin
U.Today Editorial Team